Kukla's Korner Hockey

The standoff between Kyle Turris and the Phoenix Coyotes was taken up a notch Thursday.

Kurt Overhardt, the agent for the unsigned center, confirmed that Turris has asked the Coyotes for a trade.

“This has never been about money, we’ve been upfront with the club from Day 1,” Overhardt told ESPN.com Thursday. “We’ve respectfully requested that the player had the opportunity to move forward in his career by having a fresh start.”

Coyotes general manager Don Maloney’s stance has been that he wouldn’t trade Turris. And that hasn’t changed.

Comments

If he were worth so much, maybe he’d get an offer sheet thrown his way. Phoenix is wise to not let him dictate the terms. He demands a trade? Screw him. I think most NHL GM’s are happy that Maloney is standing firm. It sends a message to all the young kids coming in that they have to pay their dues. If he sits out a season, it sets his career back, likely costing him big on his next contract. So say Phoenix does trade him prior to 2012-13…. what can he realistically demand in a contract based on his less than stellar young career, the fact that he sat a year, and that he’s a known problem already? He’s an idiot and his agent is a bigger idiot.

Posted by
RedMenace
from the Church of Jesus Lashoff on 10/27/11 at 05:50 PM ET

Maybe he’s making “unrealistic” demands because he wants out…

That may be true. But early on, his agent was throwing out comps to justify a high salary, as though he’s on par w/ Kane, Couture and others from his draft class. He’s not. Not even close. Maybe he’ll get there, and when he does, he can make demands.

I think he’s doing himself a disservice with this strategy because I think that most NHL GM’s have no problem watching Phoenix sit this guy for a season, and I believe Phoenix will do it without blinking. By sitting him, they’re losing out on his whopping 25 points, and Phoenix has no real expectations on the season anyways so may as well save some money.

So he’ll sit. And when he returns, he’ll be even more of an unknown asset but now with baggage. As it is, he’s not exactly blown the doors off the league to earn much, and he’s really too young to expect any real deference from a team or the league as far as demanding a trade. He has a weak bargaining position and his agent acts like he’s holding all the cards for some reason.

It’s possible he sits for a season, but Maloney has to be the bigger man here. He’s doing nothing but potentially hurting a young player’s career just to “save face,” or some other machismo bullshit.

Bargaining position aside, Turris wants out, and Phoenix can’t make him play. They’re not going to sign him to a new contract, because no matter what they offer he’s not going to accept it. Give over, get rid of him, and be done with it. He’s already got “the baggage” from this whole mess; protracting the ordeal and stunting his growth as a player is just a petty and ridiculous thing to do, and isn’t going to help anyone in the long run.

Posted by
RedMenace
from the Church of Jesus Lashoff on 10/27/11 at 06:51 PM ET

I think the point is that his NHL rights are the property of Phoenix. They say they want him to play and he says he doesn’t. Without knowing the details of the contract negotiations, it’s hard to say for sure how reasonable or unreasonable Phoenix is being with what they’re offering, but for him to demand a trade is not giving anyone a choice at all.

I have no idea why you think it has anything to do with saving face or some “machismo bullshit”. As for hurting a young player’s career, there are two sides to this. This is the first anyone has said about Turris just wanting to be traded - up until now, it was all about how he’s asking for too much. Which everybody in the hockey world except Turris and his agent pretty much agreed he was. So now apparently it’s just that he doesn’t want to play in Phoenix - why’d he wait so long to admit that?

Phoenix is under no obligation to do anything with the kid. They drafted him something like 3rd overall - that alone is a big investment right there, and to see that walk away for pennies on the dollar isn’t a good move. I think Maloney wants Turris to play a season or two more and either work out long term in Phoenix or at least develop to his potential so he can have something of value to trade.

I also think, overall, they just don’t want to let a young kid dictate terms. And by “they”, I mean the NHL, the owners and every GM. The real “conspiracy” question is, is the NHL front office interfering here, since they do own the team?